Now, come back to my story. In this post I want to tell about my life during May 2013. Why May 2013? Some of you that familiar with Korean culture may guess since I live in Korea, this month is special because it is well known as family month (가정의 달). FYI, Korean people are celebrating 3 special days in this single month. The first one is Children's Day (어린이 날) on May 5th, the second one Parents Day (어버이 날) on May 8th, and the last one Teacher's Day (스승의날) on May 15th. Coincidentally, Buddha's birthday (석가탄신일) in Korea this year is celebrated on May 17th, which is adding the number of holiday in this month (Long Weekend Hopefully ^_^)
 |
| Interactive advertising of some events held during May 2013 at KAIST. These advertisement were composed of bunch each single event posters which shaped into their own event identity. From left to right: "피아노" literally read as Piano which indicating the event by KAIST Piano Club, Darth Vader's face indicating the event by KAIST Orchestra which will play the original score of Star Wars, and the last one "ᄇᄋᄇ" literally read as BOB which is abbreviation of Ba-O-Bab an a cappella club at KAIST. |
However, frankly speaking there is nothing special with May 2013. I just realized in this month I have a quite tight schedule plan other than daily hectic research yet to be accomplished to balance the quality of my life as graduate student. In addition, so far I really enjoy this particular month than any other months during my stay in Korea. So, let's summarize my life in this month:
 |  |  |  |
| KAIST-ONE Brazil | My Experimental Results on 1st Week of May 2013 | Gap Stream (갑천) | Hanbat Arboretum (한밭수목원) |
- 1st week of May: I was struggling with my wafer bonding experiment. Finally, for the first time I succeeded to bond two different silicon (Si) wafers together. I will talk about this research specifically in the later time. In this week I also planned to attend KAIST-ONE Brazil. But due to my experiment schedule, I canceled to attend this event. It was pretty sad in the beginning (T_T), but later after analyzing my successful experimental results, this feeling was completely disappeared. In addition, this choice was made me able to present my research progress nicely in the weekly Lab meeting. As Sunday is considered as weekend, my story of this week was closed with my nice Sunday afternoon walking along the Gap Stream (갑천), sightseeing in the Hanbat Arboretum (한밭수목원) and also watching some nice movies.
 |  |  |  |
| KISA Languange and Culture Exchange (KLcX) | KAIST Spring Culture Festival 2013 G.Rium Concert | 6th TEDxKAIST event (Choice between Birth and Death) | PIAST & PIACNU 1st Piano Ensemble "OPERA" |
- 2nd Week of May: Nothing special happened during the weekdays. However, approaching the weekend I got a quite busy plan. On Thursday I participated in first meeting of KISA Language and Culture Exchange (KLcX), I got a partner to exchange language and culture who comes from China. Through this KLcX event hopefully I can improve my Chinese language ability and make some new friends. On Friday I attended KAIST Spring Culture Festival which featuring G.Rium Concert, professional artists who were performing classical violin and piano. On Saturday I attended two events, first one inspiring 6th TEDxKAIST event (Choice between Birth and Death) and the second one listening to harmonious melody played by PIAST & PIACNU in their 1st Piano Ensemble "OPERA" which was a Piano concert performed using 2 pianos by 4 piano players using in total 8 hands.
Until this article is published, I just passed the second week of May, so the following weeks are considered as my plan.
- 3rd Week of May: In this week I plan to attend KAIST A Cappella "BAOBAB" concert on Wednesday, KAIST-ONE Malaysia on Thursday (will not miss it), Si-KOMO an outbound event held by KAIST-INA & KAIST Orchestra 21st Spring Annual Concert "TRILOGY" (performing the original score from the best three Trilogy movie of all time: LOTR, Pirates of the Carribean, & Star Wars. I've been dreaming for this kind of play) on Friday, and enjoying the rest of long weekend.
 |
| KAIST Spring Culture Festival 2013 Korean National Ballet "Sweet Ballet" |
- 4th Week of May: There will be KAIST Spring Student Festival started from Mat 20th to 22nd. Even tough this event is mainly organized by undergraduate student, there will be various booth stands that we can visit. Also in the third day of festival there will also be KISA Food Festival. On the weekend, I plan attend the other performance of KAIST Spring Culture Festival while this time will perform Korean National Ballet "Sweet Ballet" (it is a rare occasion tough) and on Saturday I will busy with my other lab mates to host my lab annual homecoming day.
 |
| KAIST Spring Culture Festival 2013 Concert (Park Sae Byul & One More Chance) |
- 5th Week of May: So far I only have 2 events I'm planning to attend, which are KAIST-ONE China on May 30th (definitely will not miss this event), and the closing performance of KAIST Spring Culture Festival for this semester, Concert (Park Sae Byul & One More Chance).
So, that is summary of my activities during May 2013. You may find the detail description of each week by simply clicking the week in above hyperlink.
Thank you for reading this. Hope you enjoy it
Hi I am a Malaysian having thoughts on pursuing phd studies in kaist. If it is okay for you to be asked on several things regarding studies in kaist, if I may ask (1) Is it true that KAIST sponsors all studies fee for all students, (2) Is it impossibly difficult to maintain the required cgpa and if by chance, the cgpa drops, will the scholarship be automaticaly cut off in one go, (3) Is the environment there very stressful, or the professors are very strict, or the research are terribly difficult that I had come across several suicide cases (4) Are there any Malaysian / Muslims there in KAIST if I may ask (5) Is it possible to finish phd in only 3 years there?
ReplyDeleteI think that is all for my inquiry for now. It ould be such a great thing if you can share on the infos regarding my inquiry. I would like to thank you in advance for reading this long comment
-Mina from Malaysia
Hi Mina,
ReplyDeletePlease kindly find the answers to your questions based on my own opinion/perspective.
(1) Yes. KAIST provides KAIST scholarship for international students. The scholarship includes tuition fee and living allowance (minimum amount KRW 300,000 per month). For graduate student (because I saw you're planning to pursue PhD studies), the scholarship will be provided by your supervisor (professor). Therefore, it is recommended to look for a professor that will be able to support/sponsor you during your study before applying to the university
(2) It highly depends on how hard you're willing to work for it. As long as you're committed to your study, I do think that you will be able to maintain the minimum required GPA. If I'm not wrong, during my time the minimum required GPA per semester for KAIST scholarship awardee is 3.00/4.30. I think it is a still reasonable number considering that KAIST is one of the top universities in Korea.
(3) Again, this highly depends on the person him/herself. Graduate school sometimes can be very tough, it is not only in KAIST, but almost every graduate school around the world will have its own challenges. You must have to be mentally prepared for any possible outcomes. Luckily in KAIST, there are also a lot of support systems for KAIST students, such as KAIST Stress Clinic and KAIST Counseling center, and International Student Support team, that can help you to overcome your academic or non-academic related problems.
(4) There are many Muslim students and their families as well in KAIST. KAIST even has its own dedicated praying room (musholla) for Muslim students. However, there might not be many Malaysian students in KAIST. During my time in KAIST, number of Malaysian students was around or less than 20 students.
(5) I'd say that it is rather uncommon to complete your PhD in 3 years, as the normal study duration for PhD course in KAIST is 4 years.
I hope I answer your questions. Please feel free to ask me if you have another questions.
Pramudita